Burnham’s first 100 days have been a triumph of personality – now we need political substance

As Andy Burnham prepares for his 100th day as Prime Minister tomorrow, we have learned a lot about him.

We know his favourite pub snack (Twiglets), his favourite football team (Everton), his favourite band (The Smiths), that he is a proud northerner, he loves buses, he went to Cambridge University, he prefers chinos and a T-shirt to a suit and tie.

There is no doubt that, partly as a result of his appealing personality, he is doing better than the man he ruthlessly replaced, Keir Starmer.

Labour’s poll ratings have improved. The public has taken to Burnham in a way that it never did to well-intentioned but awkward Starmer.

Unlike Starmer, “Andy” as he likes to be known, is comfortable in his own skin. When people see him up close, or up close through a TV camera, they generally warm to him.

In the superficial and brutal modern media world, it helps that he is telegenic. His famous dark eyelashes, soft Northern tones, refusal to get cross regardless of the shouty provocation by Kemi Badenoch or anyone else, and boy next door looks make him easy on the eye and ear. Not something anyone ever said about Starmer.

Nothing illustrates the gulf between Burnham and Starmer’s style than Burnham’s recent appearance on Channel Four reality show Gogglebox.

He sat on a sofa chatting with his mate, Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram, drank a couple of pints of beer, smiled, looked nice, made a couple of fairly lame self-deprecating jokes and discussed his love of Twiglets (again) and baked beans. And that was it.

As far as Burnham’s aides are concerned, it was another success in their campaign to promote him as a man of the people.

Image-wise, Burnham’s first 100 days have been a triumph.

Labour MPs are delighted too. You can tell by the massed ranks of their smiling faces on the Labour backbenches during prime minister’s questions in the Commons, a marked change from their collective grimace whenever Starmer was at the despatch box.

They believe Merseyside-born Burnham is one of them, Labour through and through in a way that London lawyer Starmer never was.

So much for style.

When it comes to political vision, Burnham has been no slouch there either. We know his long-term aims of solving social care, driven by the agony of watching his late father Roy suffer from dementia, ripping up the first-past-the-post voting system, ending 40 years of neo liberalism, re-industrialising Britain, reversing the privatisation of the Thatcher era, building a new generation of council houses. Oh yes, not forgetting reversing Brexit.

But there is one problem with it all. He doesn’t intend even to get started on any of it for another two or three years. He has admitted that most of the above has to wait until he has won a mandate for it in the next general election.

Which is not expected to take place until 2028 or 2029 at the latest. That is assuming he wins it, which is by no means a certainty.

The biggest day so far in Burnham’s 100-day premiership will come on day 101, Wednesday, when Chancellor John Healey delivers Burnham’s and his own first Budget.

According to most reports, it will be a safety-first affair with both determined to avoid Starmer and Rachel Reeves’ car crash first budget two years ago when they imposed the second-biggest tax rises in budget history and never recovered their economic credibility

It is understandable why Burnham is keen to avoid their fate. But his political stock will never be higher than now.

If he wants to make his mark as Prime Minister, he cannot afford to put off forever his grand schemes and all the many difficult decisions he faces, such as making the necessary savings to protect vital public services, in particular reducing the out-of-control welfare bill.

Cutting bus fares to £2 and £100 fines for people who make a racket on their phones on public transport is all very well. And there is nothing wrong with winning over voters by showing who you really are.

But there comes a point when a prime minister needs more than gimmicks and Gogglebox. That moment is now.